I debated about making a New Year’s resolution this year. I’ve never, ever resolved to do or not do something and prevailed. Last year I resolved to do something simple, what I perceived to be very do-able: I would eat one apple a day. I actually like apples, and learned there’s a lot of truth behind the old saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” I think I ate a total of eight apples in 2019. Just 357 days shy of being a successful resoluter.

In spite my less than stellar track record, I did decide to make a resolution this year because, well, it’s the start of a new decade, for heaven’s sake! So instead of do-ableness, I’m going for broadness. I’m resolving not to be a sluggard. That way, if I accomplish just one non-sluggardly activity a day, I’ll be a first-time successful resoluter. If I take a shower, Boo-Yah! Success!

I’m teasing. I’m not going to make it quite that easy.

I just listened to a podcast about sluggards. The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about the sad state a sluggardly person will find themselves in if they don’t mend their ways. A literally sad state. Sluggards aren’t a happy group of individuals. 

When we were teenagers, my dad would come home from work, look pointedly at us, and say, “Please tell me you did more than just sit around all day and sop up air. You’re here to contribute!”

We would sit there, mute. Looking down in shame for being the sluggards that we were. 

No one in my family can hear the word “contribute” without thinking of my dad. The need to contribute was drummed into us. I’m not sure about my other siblings, but another word that reminds me of my dad is “ingrate.” Sitting around all day sopping up air and being an ingrate was the epitome of a useless human being.

I remember my mom once scolding us for being lazy ingrates—never showing any appreciation for how hard our dad was working to bring home the bacon.

But back to the sad sluggards. For reasons I can’t put my finger on, 2019 was full of some really low days for me. I wouldn't describe it as full blown depression, but rather a nagging longing for things to be different. Not the healthy, God given longing for the day when our world will be restored to its pre-fallen state, but for my own personal circumstances to be different.

I’d never made the connection between sadness and sluggardliness. I know the correlation between ingratitude and sadness is indisputable and on those bleak days of mine, I did do my best to count my blessings and name them one by one, but the despondency persisted.

In Proverbs, the sluggard is shown in stark contrast to the diligent worker. But the diligent worker isn’t just working to make his own life better, he’s working to make life better for everybody.

As I listened, I was reminded of my dad’s wise admonition: Be grateful contributors. He knew we would find fulfillment not in self-centered work meant to gratify our own desires, but by doing work that is beneficial to all of society.

And I believe that’s where I fell short in 2019. Even on the days that I wasn’t being a sad little sluggard, the only non-sluggardly things I did were not contributing to the needs of others, but rather only what was beneficial to myself (like exercising, for instance).

So instead of being a sluggard, I’m resolving to be a diligent worker. Perhaps just reaching out and doing just one non-sluggardly thing for someone other than myself.

It’s a fresh start, a new decade and a new resolution to say goodbye to the sluggard and hello to the diligent, grateful, and hopefully happier contributor.

Happy New Year!